Pride necessarily sprouts and grows; a pride that can only come from relentless kneading of unwilling flesh, painful months of grinding and burning away all that is heavy, all that is strength-sapping and useless to the body as a projectile. --John L. Parker, Jr., runner/author

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt

17 Miles in just over two hours. Beautiful morning for a run following church, but the wind off the Arkansas River along the Little Rock / North Little Rock River Trail was pretty brutal. Good start to 2012.

Out the door at 4:30am (2012 Resolution #1) for 10 Miles on a frigid morning well below freezing in my neighborhood. After a warm-up mile that didn't warm me up, I ran 6 Miles at 6:55/Mile, an easy mile, and 10X200m striders with 200m recovery between striders.

Do I get credit if I felt like I was going faster than 6:55? In little Rock, anything in the 20s is cold, and I was fightin' it.

Committed a cardinal sin yesterday...skipped my long run. And frankly, I didn't do much today to make up for it. 10 Miles on the treadmill in 85 minutes.

I'm trying to stay positive, and I've continued to train through it, but my left foot is really bothering me. The bone running along the outside of my foot hurts (particularly in the morning and after running), and I have what I think is a stone bruise on my heel.

am: Extended warm-up, including 2 Miles Easy and 2 Miles at 6:58/mile, followed by 12X.25 Mile Repeats at 5K Pace (6 at 6:00, 4 at 5:52, and 2 at 5:46) on treadmill. Including .25 Mile jogging recovery between repeats and half-mile cool-down, this morning's workout included 10.5 Miles.

pm: 6.5 Miles in approximately 50 minutes with a co-worker, Dave, who loves to run; beautiful afternoon in Little Rock.

16 Miles in right at 1:52:00 on a cold morning of 31 degrees...down by the river.

Great run this morning, crossing over the Two Rivers Bridge into the North Little Rock side of Two Rivers Park; followed River Trail west to exit of park, then north briefly past some beautiful horse farms to Pinnacle Valley Rd.; west on Pinnacle Valley Rd to the back entrance of Pinnacle Valley State Park, where I climbed for about a mile to a beautiful, scenic overlook. Turned around and headed back along the same route.

Looking forward to a nice, easy 18-miler tomorrow with my father, Mark, who's training his tail off for Boston (he's never run a marathon where he didn't set a PR...okay, so he's only run two, but that's still pretty impressive).

8 Miles, untimed, on a cold morning in my Little Rock neighborhood. Opting against a long run this week because of my foot, which remains an issue (some are days worse than others). Overall, I've had good, consistent mileage, and looking forward, I plan to get in a couple of 20-milers over the next couple of weeks.

Ended the run with a few sets of pull-ups and push-ups at the neighborhood park, which is about a quarter mile from my house.

I want to share an "In the news" brief from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

David Doty, superintendent of the Canyons School DIstrict in suburban Salt Lake City, said the district decided against using "Cougars" as a mascot for a new high school in part because some see the word cougar as carrying a "negative double entendre."

To my SLC friends and fellow bloggers...Seriously???

As to my running, today's workout include 8 Miles in 1:01:30 with my coworker, Dave, along the North Little Rock River Trail, and 3 Miles on the treadmill--including 4X.25 Mile Repeats at 5K pace--after returning from the outdoor portion of the run.

Busy day at work today with limited time to workout. Got in a quick MP/Tempo run on the treadmill; after 1 Mile to warm-up, I ran 3 Miles at 6:40/mile and 1 Mile at 6:31. Including 1.5 Easy Miles to cool down, I ran 6.5 Total Miles in around 45 minutes.

18.25 Miles in 1:59:04 on a perfect morning in the low 40s along the Little Rock River Trail. Ran two out-and-back loops starting from Two Rivers Park Bridge.

Toward the end of the first loop, around Mile 9, I ran into a buddy of mine who is an elite triathlete, and he jumped off his bike to run the final 8 miles with me. We pushed each other pretty hard, and I was very pleased to finish with a 6:31/mile average pace.

6 Easy Miles with Dave at lunch through the streets of South Little Rock, passed the Governor's Mansion and historic Central High School, down to the State Fair Grounds, and back again; upon my return to the gym, I ran 6 Easy Miles on the treadmill for 12 Total Miles.